Should I underexpose Velvia

[Mats_A]

I know B&W film should be slightly overexposed (re ISO) to maintain shadows.
I understand that slide-film is more sensitive to overexposure.
Is it wise to meter a roll of Velvia 100 at 125 or should I keep it at 100?

r

Mats

 

[domaz]

People used to rate Velvia 50 at 40 to get less saturation and more shadow detail. So maybe by underexposing you will get more saturation and less shadow detail, and possibly keep from blowing highlights. Then again some common scenes where the highlights get blown out regularly (dark foreground, light sky) probably won't change much.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Same thing with me I shoot Velvia 50 at 40 and Velvia 100 at 80.

Jeff

 

[tzillman]

Mats, I've shot about 20-25 rolls of Velvia 100 in the past couple months. I've been exposing for mid tones with the meter set at 100 ISO. The exposures tend to come out a tad underexposed (say a half stop) and I've not been having problems with blowing out highlights. The film is very saturated and dense in comparison with Provia, which is the film I usually use. My wife even noticed the difference and wondered if the colors in my older slides were fading. It does seem to be more difficult to scan than Provia. I tend to have darker scanned images than I do with Provia, but for projection the images look great. I've been using a Leica M7 and a Nikon F5 which have accurate meters. Hope this helps.

Tom

 

[perkeleellinen]

I used to underexpose the ASA50 by 1/2 stop when shooting in woodland. I'd wait until late afternoon, when the sun would be warm and produce these strong shafts of light through the trees, I'd then meter the light falling on the ground and rate the film at ASA80, I suppose. The effect was striking - very dark shadows, saturated colours and wonderful details in the light portions of the scene.

 

[Mats_A]

Ok. I will shoot this in my Nikon FA, so the meter should be all right. They are not for scanning but for projection.
Thanks for your advice. ISO 100 it will be.

r

Mats

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

You won't have any difficulties with Velvia if you expose it for its intended illumination, that being diffuse, rather than point (e.g. bright sun). Having said that, Velvia 100 is an extreme palette (commonly referred to as an "ultra-high saturation palette") with touchy whites and hyper-elevated reds and blue, and blows highlights and block shadows far less gracefully than the stablemate Velvia 50 (commonly rated at EI40) or 100F (rated as-is).

Either/both of the above will be quite noticeable in projection, but unless you are printing, it is no big deal. Things get very serious indeed when it comes time to print Velvia which exposure has been compromised in some place.

It is recommended that you bracket several of your shots either side of the nominal ISO and decide from there. Clip tests at the processing stage may also be useful in coming to a working conclusion as to which ISO/index is best suited to the photography you do, but it won't be a "one shoe fits all" outfit, hence the other Velvia emulsions are worth looking at too.

 

[benjiboy]

That's a good point, you should shoot slides to suite the power of the lamp in your projector, I find all the Fuji professional slide films to be accurately rated at the boxed speed and if you if I use incidental metering all the slide have the same density for projection.